Changes to functions and responsibilities regulations "unworkable": top lawyer

A leading local government lawyer has urged councils in England to respond to a government consultation on changes to the regulations on local authorities’ functions and responsibilities, warning that some of the proposals are “unworkable” and unjustified.

The warning from DAC Beachcroft’s Head of Local Government, Judith Barnes, comes as the deadline approaches (close of play, 6 March) for responses to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s consultation on amendments to the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000.

The DCLG consultation paper can be viewed here, alongside a letter to chief executives of principal councils.

The letter said that provisions in the draft regulations were intended amongst other things to:

• Give greater clarity about the roles of full council and the executive on budgeting and in year budget changes;
• Deal with ‘mayoral plans’, reflecting an elected mayor’s commitments to their electorate, and the role of such a plan in the authority’s processes for deciding its strategies and policies; and
• Set out the roles of the executive and council in relation to certain matters, in particular charges relating to neighbourhood planning, the establishment of combined authorities and economic prosperity boards, contracting out of functions under section 70 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, and that any decision to dispose of land and buildings with a value above £500,000 should not be a matter for the executive.

The letter also said ministers were minded to include in the proposed Regulations provision to require decisions relating to (i) new parking enforcement areas or parking charges, and (ii) to the frequency of waste collection should be put to the full council.

Writing in Local Government Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft’s Barnes said some of the DCLG’s proposals had been included without serious justification.

“Some of these proposed changes are unworkable and seem to represent some of the 'policy favourites' of the current Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, particularly those changes requiring decisions to be taken by full Council on such matters a frequency of bin collections, car parking outsourcing and disposal of council land,” she argued.

Barnes added: “These changes will blur the lines between executive and non-executive governance; increase bureaucracy (requiring decisions to be taken twice) and potentially change the nature of Council meetings and their frequency in order to accommodate decision making, that should properly rest with the executive rather than the Council. The changes also fly in the face of the localism agenda.”

In particular, DAC’s Head of Local Government said it was “completely inappropriate for property matters over any threshold to go to full council (other than in very exceptional matters)”.

Barnes also noted how the consultation document stated that the policy intention was for Health and Wellbeing Boards to be able to exercise any functions of their authorities, whether executive or non-executive.

However, she questioned whether the DCLG’s proposed solution as set out in the document would achieve the desired objective.

To read Judith Barnes’ article, Last call – the functions and responsibilities consultation, click here.